WE all agree that the killing of one human being by another is a crime against all mankind.

However, Peter Mullen’s recent column about Muslims (Echo, Nov 23) was biased.

There was not one mention of any other sect or religion being involved in massacres.

In recent times we have seen Christians in Germany attempt to annihilate Jews. The death of more than 10,000 people in Muslim-on-Muslim attacks in Algeria, the murder of 20,000 ethnic Georgians in Abkhazia in the 90s, Christians slaughtering thousands in Lebanon and Srebrenica and 20,000 Sikhs killed in 1984.

My list could go on, but it wouldn’t be so one-sided.

Western governments have reacted to the situation very badly.

The biggest mistake has been forgetting the notion that if you remove the top predator from a system in Nature you will have no control of the outcome.

The removal of Saddam Hussein and Colonel Gaddafi, and the lack of support for Bashar al-Assad, all abhorrent rulers, has led to the crises we find ourselves with now but we can’t rewind these errors of foreign policy.

We will not succeed in keeping terrorists from our doorstep until we can sit with political leaders, no matter how cruel and oppressive, to discuss mutual alliances and stability.

B Jackson, Sacriston